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Police looking for endangered child

Montrose authorities say infant
may be injured but not treated

Montrose police are looking for a green Ford station wagon that at one point was carrying an infant who suffered facial injuries after falling in front of a business over the weekend.

Police said Monday they’re concerned about the welfare of the child, who was bloodied by the fall and was not brought to an area hospital for treatment and is therefore considered endangered.

Police Cmdr. Gene Lillard said the incident happened at a business in the south part of town on Saturday. He declined to identify the business.

Witnesses told police a young, white female was pushing the infant in some type of cart — Lillard said it was probably a baby stroller — when the baby fell out of the cart. They said the woman picked up the baby, put the baby in the station wagon and drove away. The baby appeared to be bleeding from the nose and mouth, Lillard said.

The woman was described as being 5-foot-4, weighing 120 pounds and wearing glasses. She had brown hair with blond highlights.

Lillard said police don’t know the relationship between the woman and the infant. He said they also don’t know the gender of the infant, who police are guessing is about 3 months old.

The car the woman and infant got into was a 1994 Ford Escort station wagon with California license plate number 3KMD526. The plate expired in 2005.

Lillard said police checked hospitals in Montrose and Delta and learned no one matching the description of the woman or infant came in. He said officers have scoured city streets looking for the vehicle and notified Western Slope law-enforcement agencies of what happened.

“We haven’t come up with anything,” he said. “Our concern is (the woman and baby are) out of the area.”

Lillard said the license plate matches the vehicle and registers to an owner in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., although police haven’t been able to contact that person.

He said police don’t want to scare the woman away by announcing they’re looking for her and the child and emphasized their primary concern is for the welfare of the child.

Anyone who has seen the vehicle is asked to call Montrose police at 970-252-5200 or 970-252-4021.